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Angel of the North

Tyne and Wear

Landscape / Sculpture, Regeneration

Sparking controversy in its early days, the Angel of the North has now been wholeheartedly adopted as an icon of the Region.

Anthony Gormley’s Angel led the way for the area’s cultural regeneration. In its footsteps came a world-class music venue - the Sage Gateshead, the world's first tilting bridge - the Millennium Bridge and the building of the largest art space outside London - the BALTIC.

As tall as four double-decker buses and with a wingspan close to that of a jumbo jet, it was the biggest public sculpture in the country when it appeared on the Gateshead skyline in 1998.

It was constructed from steel in Hartlepool, placed on the site of the former Team Valley colliery’s pithead baths, and engineered by a world-renowned company whose founder hailed from Tyneside - Ove Arup.

The Angel’s huge success inspired plans for a number of similar large-scale public art works up and down the country hoping to replicate the success of the Angel; but none having managed to be quite so memorable. A feat of engineering that is an ode to this Region’s past, present and future.